In recent years, the functional capabilities of portable communications devices have increased dramatically. Current devices enable communication by voice, text, and still or moving images. Communication by text, such as by email, instant message (IM) or short messaging service (SMS), has proven to be quite popular.
However, the size of these portable communication devices also restricts the size of the text input device, such as a physical or virtual keyboard, in the portable device. With a size-restricted keyboard, designers are often forced to make the keys smaller or overload the keys. Both may lead to typing mistakes and thus more backtracking to correct the mistakes. This makes the process of communication by text on the devices inefficient and reduces user satisfaction with such portable communication devices.
Accordingly, there is a need for more efficient ways of entering text into portable devices.